The Marines Have Decided That Women Are Too Wimpy To Have To Do Pullups

The US Marine Corps has delayed a physical fitness requirement
for women after more than half of female troops at boot camp
couldn't do three pullups, officers said Thursday.

The pullup rule was supposed to go into effect with the new year
but has been postponed indefinitely as commanders were concerned
about losing female Marines and prospective recruits, officers
said.

The commandant of the Marine Corps, General James Amos, "has
decided that Training and Education Command will continue to
gather data and ensure that female Marines are provided with the
best opportunity to succeed," spokeswoman Captain Maureen Krebs
said in a statement.

In the meantime, female Marines will return to a less-demanding
"flexed arm hang" -- which requires them to hold their chin above
a bar.

Physical fitness tests, particularly upper body strength, have
come under the spotlight as the Marine Corps and the Army prepare
to open all combat jobs to women by 2016.

Military leaders say they are developing gender-neutral tests for
combat roles, but some critics and lawmakers are worried that
physical requirements will be watered down for female troops.

The new rule for a minimum of three pullups for female Marines
was announced in November 2012, and the Corps gave women a year
to train for the change.

But at the Marine Corps boot camp in South Carolina's Parris
Island, roughly 55 percent of women could not perform the minimum
three pullups, Krebs said.

As a result, the change was delayed.

"The commandant has no intent to introduce a standard that would
negatively affect the current status of female Marines or their
ability to continue serving in the Marine Corps," Krebs said.

The issue will be examined throughout 2014 but there is no
deadline as to when the pullup rule might return.

Some male military bloggers complained that women were being held
to a lower standard.

"I don't ever remember a single male Marine in the fleet or
support unit who could only do three pullups," wrote blogger
Ultimaratioregis.

"The physical disparity between an average male Marine and female
Marine is gigantic."

The blogger added that for infantry and other combat teams,
physical strength was "a matter of life or death for the unit and
the individuals in it."

The physical fitness standards are supposed to reflect the
strength required in a battlefield scenario, including lifting
heavy ammunition, equipment or wounded comrades.

Male Marines have to perform 20 pullups to get a maximum score on
their fitness test, but women only have to pull their weight up
eight times to earn maximum points.

Jeannette Haynie, a female Marine reservist, wrote in July that
she could not do three pullups but argued the Corps should stick
to the tough rule despite mixed results in initial tests.

"Stick to the standard, keep the expectations high. Force us all,
male and female, to hoist ourselves up to that bar," Haynie wrote
on a blog at the US Naval Institute.

In November, three women graduated for the first time from a
grueling Marine Corps infantry training course and officials said
no rules were relaxed for the female troops.

Women also have been invited to enroll in infantry officer
training, but no woman has successfully completed the course so
far.

Despite the latest decision by the commandant, pullups are not
exactly going away for female "leather necks."

The Corps has told its members that "all Marines are strongly
encouraged to continue training under the assumption that pullups
will remain a standard measure of physical fitness," according to
a message sent out to troops in November.